I bought one of them fancy electric anodes but can't get the original anode rod out. I'm using a breaker bar and even full of water the entire water heater just spins on the ground instead of the anode bolt breaking free.

Any tips on what else I can try? I've seen the YouTube videos of how to remove it from Rheem hybrid water heaters and they make it seem way easier to pull out the old one.

And this is a new unit btw only been using it for about a month. So that rod shouldn't be seized like this.

11,000-gallon plaster saltwater pool surrounded by trees. Only about 4-5 hours sunlight daily. Rarely used, maybe twice a month.

Today's Taylor Kit results

• FC: 1.7
• CC: 0.8
• pH: 7.8
• TA: 70
• CYA: 70
• CH: 375
• Salt: 3200
• CSI: -0.04

In February I replaced an off-brand T-15 cell with a genuine Hayward T-3 I found open-box for $250. Since it's rated for 15,000 gallons, I figured it'd be plenty for my 11,000-gallon pool, especially with limited sun and a new 2-speed pump that would run much longer each day.

Initially worked no problem. Pump ran for 7 hours a day and cell set to 50%, I maintained good FAC.

However now, during summer, the pump runs 12 hours/day and even at 100% cell runtime, my FAC drops below 1 nearly every week. I've been supplementing with a lot of liquid chlorine to keep it around 5-6.

I did try and clean the cell recently but didn't see any visible build up. And unfortunately that didn't help. I do see tiny bubbles coming out of the jets, which is a sign the cell is doing something... right?

Did I screw up by under sizing the cell? Are the advertised pool sizes based on running the pump 24/7? Can I test the cell to be sure it's still working?

I'm fine upgrading to a larger cell if necessary but I want to be sure this is just the wrong one before I spend a small fortune on it.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the cell does accurately display the correct salt level. It's never off more than 100ppm from the Taylor kit result.

Edit #2: It seems my error is that the salt cell pool size capacity is based on a pump running 24/7. So that means I'd have to run mine at least 18 hours a day. Would yall just replace the cell or run the pump 24/7 until the cell dies?

An hour after buying my car, I got an email from some company "CarRX" claiming my dealer had paid for a year of service. It included car health tracking, theft protection, speeding notifications... etc. I don't typically blindly trust companies to handle my data (especially location data), so I planned to ignore it.

But something about the email bothered me. They didn't offer to send me a dongle or anything to track my car's data, just to activate the service. After some obsessive research and googling, I have learned what CarRX is and why dealerships are partnering with them.

Who is CarRX?

They are just one of many companies offering GPS tracking for dealerships. The dealer installs the device on their vehicles and then have easy access to their entire stock. They save time with inventory, they get info from the cars (such as if it has a dead battery)... etc. It sounds great for them.

So what's the problem?

Dealers don't remove the device when you buy the car (some of them even sneak the cost of it into their fees... gross). CarRX sends you an email telling you to download their app so they can help you "track the health of your car" and "locate it if it's stolen"... etc.

But what's really happening? They're tracking your car's information and sending you reminders to go back to the dealer when it's time for service. They're also sending the dealer the information so they can call you when it's "time to trade in", such as just before you hit 100K miles. And that's just what I've found. There's probably no limit to what dealers can do with that level of access to your vehicle data.

It goes further. CarRX is also collecting data about your driving habits, such as speeding events, braking events, hard turns, and yes... your location. The privacy policy explicitly states they can share your information with 3rd parties not directly affiliated with you.

What does this mean?

Your car gets a check engine light. And before you can blink, you're getting calls from the sleaziest auto shops in town. You think auto shops that pay for marketing data like that are also offering fair repair rates?

You swerve around an object in the road. You're okay and the car is okay, but the device logged a swerve event. Later that year, when it's time to renew your insurance, you notice your rates have spiked. The insurance company paid for your data and saw the swerve event. They used that to justify raising your rates.

In Conclusion

I'll never stop being surprised at the lengths tech companies will go to collect/sell our data. I'm no lawyer, but from what I can tell about the privacy policy, it doesn't matter if you ignore the email or never download the app. They can still track everything and sell it.

I'm lucky that I found mine and no wires were cut or spliced. They just installed a Y cable that tapped into the OBD cable. After removing the tracker and wiring harness, it's as good as factory again. But I've read stories of dealers hiding these in weird places and making it nearly impossible to remove.

If you've purchased a car recently, I'd start looking to see if you've got one of these. It could explain why so many business seem to know exactly when to call you for service.

Oh yeah... fuck CarRX and fuck dealerships. :)

Edit: AI doesn't normally infodump and ramble on and on like I do, but feel free to copy/paste it into an AI detection website if you're still skeptical.

Edit #2: Got the multimeter out and proved it can listen to the OBD port.

There are 4 wires going to the GPS device.

Red: OBD port 16 Black: OBD port 5 Green: OBD port 14 Yellow: OBD port 6

That's proof this device can read OBD data and possibly even request data. There is no reason a passive GPS tracker would need this unless it plans to log and send it out to a 3rd party.

Just traded an '18 Canyon in for this '22 with 38K miles and I'm already happy with it! I have 7 days to decide if I want to keep it.

A similarly priced '25 SE hit the market near me with 8K miles. Dealership says it was a loaner vehicle and is CPO. I'd have to pay sales tax since it wouldn't be a trade in.

Is it worth downgrading the trim and paying an extra 2000 bucks to get the newer one?

Converting from gas to hybrid water heater.

After talking with my local inspector who said it's fine to drain the T&P into the pan, I realized I could use the old T&P drain line to drain the condensate. I found this wall insert with a 2 inch opening, so I used a PVC reducer to get 1 inch threads, then used a copper fitting to convert to 3/4. A little pipe bend to make it fit right and voila!

The condensate line will sit above this with an air gap, just like a normal drain. But this just leads outside and drips into our flower bed.

Tried to protect the plastic with a scrap piece of steel but didn't work 100% as you can see haha. I'll patch that before drywall of course.

To clarify this is condensate from a heat pump not a gas furnace. It's no different than distilled water (except maybe a little dust or dirt from the surrounding air).

Live in the DFW area and home was built in 1992. Converting from gas to electric hybrid water heater and decided to renovate the entire closet before the swap. This closet sits inside a conditioned space, but opens to the garage so the walls are insulated.

When I pulled the old drywall and unfaced fiberglass batts out, I noticed two of the walls have plastic sheeting behind the studs. And one has no plastic at all.

1. I thought Texas homes didn't need a vapor barrier? Is this plastic for something else? It's not just in this closet, it runs all along the wall between the garage and the house. I don't know if it's on the other exterior walls in the home.

2. Why is one of the walls missing the plastic? One of the stud cavities was used as an air intake for the old water heater, so would that explain the plastic omission? In case it came loose and blocked the intake?

3. Should I install plastic barrier on this wall? Or used faced batts? What's the best thing here?

Thanks in advance for the help!

Note: I have a mold professional coming next week to inspect everything. I'm just looking for guidance to make sure I did everything I could in the meantime.

Last night my water heater decided we had too much money in our account.

Fortunately, most of the water leaked straight out of the garage. Unfortunately, the drain pan overfilled and some of the water made it's way inside.

I tracked the water spread with my thermal camera. No water on the drywall, just spread about 8 inches into the carpet and traveled along some of the walls (I draw a little diagram to help visualize).

I sucked as much water out as I could with my shop vac. Then I removed the baseboards and ripped up all of the wet carpet. Finally I drilled holes in the wall to let them breathe. Most of the water came in through the closet, so I've been running my portable AC in there as a dehumidifier. I have all of the fans available to me running.

Did I do enough? I called a mold inspector (who is scheduled to come by next week) and he recommended cutting those holes. He said they normally cut drywall 2 feet high but since this was so localized and a relatively small amount of water, I could just cut holes for an easier repair later.

Edit: Oh and final note. There is a little hall closet besides the laundry room that has engineered wood flooring. I couldn't see any moisture with the thermal camera and I see no evidence of water. I'm pretty sure it's glued down, not floating. So that means it's protected from water seeping underneath, right?

Water heater decided it was time to explode. How lucky of me to have this new doorbell camera to capture the action. Stayed up late setting up frigate capture and everything.

Lowering the sharpness setting to 0 cut the bitrate on my CX820 front door cam by nearly 1/3. The savings at night are less dramatic, only cutting bitrate by 30-40%. Less, but still noteable.

Initially I thought this was a reversible change since most camera/tv sharpening is artificial post processing. That way you could save on bitrate/storage and add sharpening to relevant clips.

But after experimenting with my phone's native video app and premiere pro, it appears the in-camera sharpening is still much better (I suspect some tuned AI sharpening).

So while this could be helpful if storage space is a limiting factor for you... I'd recommend small adjustments rather than dialing it straight to 0.

Edit: I should clarify this only works if you have variable bitrate enabled (also known as constant quality mode).

Do I also need to run a bond to the tank itself? Or does that defeat the purpose of the dielectric connection? I can't seem to find clear answers on this.

Replacing my gas water heater with electric. Needed a new 30 amp circuit to feed it. Decided against more tandems and installed a main breaker subpanel that will eventually double as a "critical circuit" panel for power outages.

I've done tons of basic DIY electrical work, but nothing like this. I had a friendly electrician from reddit guide me through this install, but now that I'm done it'd be nice to just get a few more eyes on it to make sure I didn't increase my fire risk! I'll include as many details about the install as I can remember.

Subpanel is fed via 70 amp breaker, three #4s for hots and neutral, and one #6 for ground. I used a 1" PVC conduit elbow to connect the panels. I installed a dedicated ground bar and did not use the included ground screw for the neutral bar.

For the existing circuits that moved to the subpanel, there wasn't enough slack in the romex. So I installed a junction box in the attic and extended the length with some new romex down to the subpanel. Twisted all of the grounds together and pigtailed to a box screw.

One of the 15 amp breakers (top left) is powering two outlets on two separate wires. Previously, this circuit went straight from the main panel to the 120V GFCI outlet (visible in the photo) and then up the wall to an exterior outlet. I planned to pass the romex straight up through the subpanel, but opted to move the breaker over and connect the breaker in between, feeding each outlet on separate wires. Moving the outlet was another option, but that was too much work compared to just losing a single circuit in my subpanel.

2 of the 4 open slots at the bottom is for a future generator inlet/interlock. The other 2 are reserved for an appliance I later decide is essential (maybe the stovetop or pool pump).

I do plan to clean up the main panel at a later date, including grouping the open slots, cleaning up some excess wire, installing 1 or 2 more neutral bars to spread out those neutrals that are sharing lugs, and moving that one tandem to an approved tandem slot.

I ran the numbers on my appliances and the only situation I could draw more than 200 amps is if, while everything else in the home is running, my HVAC calls for level 3 aux heat. I live in North Texas and even during single digit cold snaps, I have never needed more than level 1 aux heat. So I'm quite certain I'll never overload my service.

Oh and yeah I did damage the drywall a bit when installing the subpanel. Maybe one weekend when I'm bored I'll do some drywall repair.

So at the end, I have a subpanel that feeds my WH, my freezer/internet outlet, my refrigerator outlet, and my guest room outlets (figured a smaller room is easier to keep cool/warm during an extended outage). Did I miss anything y'all would consider essential? And of course, let me know if my house is about to burn down! Thanks!

Option A works better since it's in a small closet (and I've seen installs just like this on youtube and google), but if it's sketchy I'll go with option B. What would you do?

Long story short...

Old water heater leaking. New one is being shipped. No expansion tank currently. Research suggests I need an expansion tank if I have closed plumbing. Only water inlet visible to the house is on the curb in this box (my meter is on the right, neighbor on the left). Don't see anything that looks like a check valve or PRV, but want to make sure. Need assistance please. Thanks!